Crawshaw Group reports ‘disappointing’ financial year as sales continue to fall

Crawshaw Group Plc has reported a ‘disappointing’ financial year as sales have continued to fall during the 52 weeks ending 28th January 2018.

During this period, the Rotherham-based butchers recorded an underlying operating loss before tax of £2m (2017: underlying operating loss of £1.1m) as a result of the decline in EBITDA performance.

The group also saw a statutory loss before tax of £13.5m, which includes a one off non cash goodwill impairment charge of £10.6m and exceptional costs of £800k.

In addition, Crawshaw reported a 5.4% reduction in LFL sales and a dip in sales in the non-LFL high street stores, which lead to a loss of £3.1m in sales.

However, group revenue for the year under review increased by 1% to £44.6m. Within that, seven new factory shops opened and contributed an additional £3.6m in sales.

Crawshaw finished off the year with 52 trading stores, opening five new factory shops in the period and closing two underperforming high street units.

Noel Collett, chief executive of Crawshaw, said: “This has been a disappointing year for Group sales. Whilst we have been pleased with the strong performance of our factory shop outlets, sales across our high street estate have proven more challenging, exacerbated by the well documented high street pressures.

“Against this, however, we have made operational progress to strengthen the business. We are confident that the rollout of our unique factory shops format and improvements in profitability across the high street estate will leave the Group well-placed for future growth.”

Jim McCarthy, chairman of Crawshaw, added: “While sales for the year have been challenging, I am confident that the repositioning of the Group towards our successful factory shop model will improve long-term profitability.

“I expect to provide an update on a new management team in due course, who I am confident will help further develop Crawshaws’ market leading value and drive improved performance in both factory shops and high street stores.”

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